an offer they can't refuse

[Pottree@domain.elided]

In a message dated 10/4/2002 2:09:06 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:


> Which makes the whole Ferrari thing a moot point.  It doesn't matter
> what GM may or may not want to do with regards to Ferrari, Fiat can
> force GM to purchase without putting Ferrari on the table.  Given that,
> Fiat would be stupid to give up Ferrari and Maserati

If the price is right, FIAT or any astute businessman would sell.  The 
persuasive offer hasn't been made, that's all.  If GM wants Ferrari/Maserati, 
they will have to pay through the nose, like anyone else, or no dice.  I 
don't blame 'em.

Meanwhile, the very upscale Enzo is already sold out before production.  
There is a hungry market (very small but very juicy) for this kind of 
product, and I don't really mean driving enthusiasts.  The benefit to GM 
would be the borrowed interest such a line could offer to help their 
sorry-ass  lineup of dowdy grannymobiles.  If they want it badly enough, 
they'll cough up the cash, that's all.  GM, of all entities, can finagle 
limitless money when needed.  They waste more in a day than most smaller 
countries live on in a year.  

And they need it bad, unless the want to rely on a backbone of trucks, 
hearses, and police cars -- as well as the low margin, high-volume rental 
fleet segment.

I recently had the "pleasure" of driving a new GM car from a rental company 
on a trip.  For reasons too humorous to mention, I needed to rent a 4-door 
sedan and wound up with an Alero, which I think (though nothing so indicated) 
is an Oldsmobile (yes, the marque they are killing after a 100 year test 
run).  Let's just say it wouldn't get into community college on the grade I 
would assign it, although it did have all the basic architecture in place, 
such as the wheels touched the ground and it started reliably (stopping was 
another matter).  

I thought it was junky, but putting aside that prejudice, it was as boring 
and insipid as it could be, and to add insult to injury, it was ugly as sin.  
Really, I don't see why they would have come up with such an offering, unless 
they thought their market was limited to 60-year-old + women in Tulsa with 
beehive hairdos and moo-moos, or perhaps nuns.  

If it were a tremendous bargain, or had some other extra incentive, they 
could sell some of these, I guess, but I can't imagine anyone with two or 
more buys left in him actually choosing one on purpose.  And that is the 
reason they are interested in riding on some coattails of a more 
sophisticated marque, such as our beloved Alfa.

You can't help but feel that the people who come up with the GM cars 
(possibly excluding the Corvette) would also think that a grilled American 
cheese sandwich on white bread toast with a glass of tepid milk  would be an 
acceptable meal, and that "Up, Up and Away in My Beautiful Balloon" is 
classical music.  I don't even want to guess what the bedroom parallel would 
be, but I think the drug of choice would be Sominex.

We are all thinking about rear wheel drive and power-to-weight, when possibly 
we should be thinking about Viagra.  No wonder there's a put option out there 
for FIAT.  At least they have an idea of what a meal  should be, even if 
right now they can't really afford the ingredients.

Maybe this is actually a good opportiunity for FIAT to sweet-talk GM into 
bankrolling a serious Alfa reintroduction.  

Don't we ALL have a no-taste rich uncle who only needs to be taken by the 
hand to be shown the way to a Good Time?

Charlie
LA, CA, USA
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